The giving city: Utrecht plans 'basic income' experiment

City links: A Dutch city trials extra payments for citizens on welfare, New York and Paris mix up their architecture and we look back at the evolution of London in this week’s best city stories from around the web

Our favourite city stories this week include news that Utrecht is planning an experiment to introduce basic income payments for citizens, a gallery of images of London street life spanning the 20th century and a map showing the crazy imbalance of US property values. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories, and any others you’ve read recently, both on Guardian Cities and elsewhere. Just share your thoughts in the comments below.

Stipend city

Between 1974 and 1979, the Canadian town of Dauphin carried out an experiment that involved giving stipends to the entire population, relative to income. This basic income programme – unconditional, regular payments to cover basic living costs – succeeded in reducing poverty, improving health and alleviating several other urban problems.

Now, as Quartz report, the Dutch city of Utrecht is planning to trial their own “basic income” programme – though limiting it to existing welfare recipients. Some believe the lack of universal rollout will hinder the possibility of making life better for the working poor. Others think the payments will discourage citizens from looking for jobs. But the government believes the programme, which will start in January 2016, could help make people happier.

London street life

Through his black-and-white photographs, Colin O’Brien has charted the evolution of postwar London. To celebrate a new book and exhibition of his work, i-D interviews the photographer alongside a gallery of his captivating images of the city’s street life, spanning almost 70 years.

“London today is much busier than it was when I was growing up,” O’Brien says. “There were less people and fewer cars. The city was drab and the buildings and monuments dirty with the grime of war.” He also shares thoughts on the regeneration taking place in the capital, and its impact on heritage and communities:

I think it is very sad when the old has to make way for the new. Obviously there has to be change, but to knock down buildings that have stood the test of time and in some cases destroy whole neighbourhoods in order to build glass boxes used for office space ... is not a good way of improving our environment. Mostly these developments are a short term fix that enable speculators to get rich whatever damage they do to local communities.

Property bubbles

Even though it makes up 8/1,000ths of 1% of the land area of the US, New York City accounts for 5% of the country’s housing value. As CityLab shares, Max Galka of Metrocosm has created a cartogram showing exactly how skewed that balance of housing value is across the country.

Driving change

What if we swapped all the taxis on our roads with driverless, electric cars? Emissions would be cut by 94%, according to Fast Co Exist. More efficient and environmentally friendly it may be – but it takes another step away from our opportunities for human interaction.

Selling the dream

We’ve written about them before: the ridiculous development hoardings that promise prospective buyers a magical life they’ve always dreamed of. Luca Picardi’s blog, What Developers Say, documents the messages given to us by the property development PR machine, from “we create outstanding experiences that make a positive difference to people’s lives” to “people work here every weekday – from brilliant barristers to busy baristas”. Crystal Bennes’ Development Aesthetics blog is worth checking out, too, for a look through the (sometimes farcical) advertising hoardings.

Haussmanhattan

A little bit of fun to end on: as French website fubiz reports, architect and photographer Luis Fernandes has taken old photographs of Paris and New York and blended them to create unusual and beautiful architectural landscapes. It’s worth a look.